


Thoughtful

by Yalu



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Birthday, Birthday Presents, Brothers, Community: love bingo, Episode s08e20: Pac-Man Fever, Gen, Gift Giving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-01
Updated: 2013-05-01
Packaged: 2017-12-10 02:26:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/780700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yalu/pseuds/Yalu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>May 2nd: Sam's birthday. Set just after 8x20: Pac-Man Fever.  Turns out Dean listens a lot more closely than Sam thought.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	Thoughtful

**Author's Note:**

> For [love_bingo](http://love-bingo.livejournal.com) Round Three. Prompt: We were on a break!
> 
> I'm assuming that even though Dean ended 8x20 by saying they should go find Kevin, they still stayed at the bunker for another day or two to make a search plan or research something. 
> 
> (Okay, this doesn't _really_ have a lot to do with the prompt, but I made it work! And the story is about brotherly love, so it totally qualifies for love_bingo. So there ;)
> 
> Thanks to Trojie for such a quick beta!

_Thud._

"Happy birthday, Sammy."

Sam cracked open one eye and stared blearily until the thing that had landed by his nose, and the rest of the world, came into focus. His head felt like a brick and his cheek ached from being mashed against the table and the book he couldn't remember reading. Something about tracking spells. He felt dizzy. It wasn't helping that his brother was leaning over on his elbows, head almost upside-down as he watched Sam wake up.

"You all right in there?"

Hell no. Literally. "Yeah, just a bit..." His eyes widened. "How long was I-?"

"Relax, just a couple of hours. Normal human sleeping cycle," said Dean, pulling out the next chair down and turning it around to sit backwards. "It's midnight," he added, tapping the box he'd thumped down, "so happy birthday."

Sam blinked hard and squinted, first at his laptop screen and then his watch. "Huh. It's May already."

"Yep. Has been for a whole day now." Dean was twitching in his seat. After a few more seconds of silence he slid the box over. "So _happy birthday_."

The box wasn't big, maybe as long as his hand and twice as wide, and was wrapped so sloppily that no one but Dean could have done it. They didn't usually get each other gifts - no place to keep them, for one, though they had the bunker now - so most of the time birthdays meant a night at the bar and Sam's once and _only_ once-a-year karaoke nights, which usually ended with them being kicked out and so drunk they just laughed about it. Gifts were new. Maybe Dean was still nesting. "Hey, thanks," he said, really touched. "You didn't have to."

Dean groaned and rolled his head back to face the ceiling. "You're killing me, man! Aren't you going to open it?"

Just to tease, because they were nothing if not still brothers, Sam didn't open it. He picked it up and examined it from every side, held it to his ear, rattled it, and then topped it off by sniffing the edges. Ceremoniously, he set it down and announced, "Well, it's not skin mags."

Dean looked at him like a kicked puppy.

"All right, all right, I'll open it."

Seriously, Sam had no idea what was inside; all the things he could think of wouldn't fit, or would sound different. It could be a joke, maybe, some kind of prank, but Dean wasn't being cagey enough for that. So Sam unwrapped it.

And blinked, because he was still kinda bleary. "Dude," he said, "you got me a tablet?"

"Better than letting you keep drooling over Charlie's. Those things aren't waterproof, you know." He was grinning ear to ear.

Sam shook his head a bit just to make very sure. This wasn't normal for them at all. This was _expensive_. Credit card fraud only worked in the long run if they didn't use it for anything big enough to be suspicious, and this... he couldn't remember how much they cost (he should; he couldn't), but it would set off some very loud alarms with the company accounts when they failed to pay it off. Dean knew better than to take that risk, so... "How'd you swing it?" A thought struck him. "Did Charlie-?"

"No way," said Dean, insulted. "I sold a few vintage mags on eBay. You didn't get suspicious with me being on the laptop all of last night?"

"Not really," said Sam, shrugging. "I thought you were watching porn."

"I was. Then I sold it." Dean took out a swtichblade and sliced through the plastic seals on the box, because Sam obviously wasn't doing it fast enough. "Charlie picked out the model," he admitted.

Sam started to smile. "So this was, what – yesterday? I thought you two were burying the bodies."

Dean shrugged. "We were on a break. The laptop's mine now, you know."

A smile slid its way across Sam's mouth and he started chuckling. His headache was completely gone. "Of course."


End file.
